Paying what you feel like doesn't often work.
Buying a home? Ha. Paying taxes? Lol. Buying clothes? Hey, come back with those.
Some restaurants, however, are finding success with the idea.
L'Oca d'Oro, an Italian-inspired Austin restaurant, is experimenting with a pay-what-you-want concept that may expand, per NPR.
The Golden Goose
As menu prices increase — along with, well, everything else — fewer Americans are dining out. Per LendingTree:
- 84% of people have cut back on restaurant spending
- 39% are eating out less
- 22% are choosing cheaper restaurants
- 13% eat at home and only go out for drinks, apps, or dessert
To entice budget-conscious customers, L'Oca d'Oro (or "The Golden Goose") offers Pay What You Will (PWYW) Tuesdays:
- Customers order from the menu and pay however much they'd like.
- Drinks are full price, and a 20% service charge and CC processing fees remain.
- Guests who can pay more help subsidize others or can contribute to a GoFundMe.
Co-owners Adam Orman and Fiore Tedesco III created PWYW Tuesdays to welcome more Austinites regardless of budget to enjoy a level of hospitality drive-thrus can't replicate. While they admit PWYW upends conventional business strategy, they take heart in a generous, loving approach.
- Most diners pay about two-thirds of their actual bill, a couple pay far less, and many pay the full amount.
- Most nights the restaurant earns less than the full menu price.
- But there's an average increase in traffic and revenue for a normally slow weekday.
The owners are now considering expanding PWYW over the summer.
PWYW successes and failures
- Mark Bittman's Community Kitchen uses a sliding-scale model.
- At Raleigh, North Carolina's A Place at the Table, diners pay the suggested price, donate a minimum, volunteer for a meal, or pay it forward.
- Jon Bon Jovi's JBJ Soul Kitchen offers a similar approach.
- At Taste Project in Texas, guests pay what they can.
- At SAME Cafe in Denver, customers can pay what they can, volunteer for 30 minutes, or donate produce.
But PWYW hasn't worked for everyone. In 2010, Panera attempted the concept — inspired by SAME — but by 2019 shuttered all locations.
While a corporate chain may not be the best platform for PWYW, the ongoing success of other restaurants experimenting with the concept are worth celebrating.
Just don't start dining and dashing everywhere you go.
Restaurants
